anthony clark-related stories
Posted Nov 2nd 2007 11:58AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: My Name Is Earl, Episode Reviews
(S03E07/S03E08) Crazy ho! - Earl Hickey
Seeing how the first Cops episode was my personal favorite I was psyched to see another one. I love seeing all the gang back together again; one-legged girlfriend, now-deceased kidnapping victim, throat cancer survivor, gay Kenny and the addition of Billy Gardell as Officer Hoyne was a smart casting move.
The great thing about these kind of episodes is that they seem like a bunch of random jokes and scenes strung together documentary style but when it's over, you realize that an intricately woven plot has just unfolded.
Continue reading My Name is Earl: Our Other Cops is On (parts 1 & 2)
Posted Aug 9th 2006 10:10PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E11) Let's get the details of the first 88 minutes of the finale out of the way right now: Dat Phan stunk. Alonzo Bodden and John Heffron both showed why Season Two is considered to be the best
LCS season. Jay Mohr is a funny guy, even though he is, as his boss Peter Engel said, "a big pain in the ass." Anthony Clark must have needed a lot of help during the six years of
Yes, Dear, because the man can't even read off a cue card properly. Oh, and for some reason, the producers showed us a seance that wasn't good enough to make the initial cut during the Queen Mary phase.
Then we had sets by the two finalists, Josh Blue and Ty Barnett. Here's my question to Ty: where the hell was that material yesterday? The question becomes more relevant after jump, so keep reading.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: Season Finale
Posted Aug 8th 2006 10:41PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E10) So today marks the "start" of the
LCS season finale. Why is it just the start? Because, since the final two had to perform tonight, we have to see the results somehow, right? So, tomorrow, we'll get to watch -- get this -- a
90 minute selection show. Lovely. Sixty-six minutes of show for something that takes about 30 seconds to announce. Nothing says "unnecessary crap" like the phrase "reality selection show."
But more on that later. For the half-hour before we learned who was going home, we got to hear a stand-up set by Paul Rodriguez, the sets from the final two comics in the online competition and... some real, live comedy from Anthony Clark! Not that it was all that good, but at least he didn't look like he wanted to throw up, like he has for the entire series.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: The final two perform
Posted Aug 1st 2006 11:20PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E09) We are now in super-filler territory here, folks. A 44-minute broadcast with only 15 minutes of real material (the three five minute sets from the remaining comics) dictates that we see things like: the last four comics introduced one-at-a-time... twice; longer bios of the remaining three comics; a commercial-interrupted elimination "ceremony"; a set by
LCS alum Jay London; and a really unfunny set by Caroline Rhea, a synergistic move that NBC used to promote the upcoming season of
The Biggest Loser.
Oh, and there were two Mel Gibson jokes. One good, one not so good.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: The final three perform
Posted Jul 25th 2006 10:45PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E08) It's funny how shows like
Last Comic Standing look more thrown together as the contest goes along. It's a matter of material; as the number of comics gets winnowed down, the producers have to figure out a way to fill the time that's been freed up. Hence some of the time-killing methods used on tonight's show: immensely long introductions of the five finalists, an excruciating elimination segment, and, most frustrating of all, a set by
LCS alum Gary Gulman.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: One leaves, four compete
Posted Jul 18th 2006 11:46PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E07) Here's where it comes down to nothing more than laughs. No bullshit like house behavior or immunity or challenges. From here on out, the comedians will give their sets, the viewers will vote by phone and web, and one by one, the comics will be elimintated. It's just a comedic mano-a-mano for all the marbles.
And, for now, it seems like it's going to be the Josh and Chris show.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: And then there were five
Posted Jul 11th 2006 11:31PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E06) One thing you can say about Season Four of
Last Comic Standing is that it's full of surprises. The comics may not be all that funny, the editing may be choppy, the preliminary selections of comics may have been suspicious, and Anthony Clark may look like he's embalmed. But you can't deny that the comics being eliminated aren't the ones anyone expected to go so early. Unfortunately, the by-product of these surprises is a set of finalists (the set of comics that will perform live and have the viewing audience vote by phone, text, and web) that is a pretty uncompelling set of personalities and, for the most part, not very funny.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: A roast and an ejection
Posted Jun 27th 2006 10:52PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, Talent, Programming, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E05) What the hell? I used to think that once the choice of who stays and who goes is put in the hands of the audience and not the producers -- who, let's face it, used other factors besides talent to see who made it in -- the choices would make more sense. I mean, everyone's tastes are different, but the audience in that "Last Comic Theater" can clearly tell who's funny and who's not, right?
I guess not.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: Adam Carolla and a surprise
Posted Jun 13th 2006 11:05PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, Talent, Programming, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E03) I've got to say,
Last Comic Standing really makes me scratch my head sometimes. Yes, I know that the finalists aren't always the funniest people in their grouping. And, yes, I know that they need to put varied character types in the house so it's not all just twelve of the same type of people trying to out yuk-yuk each other. But the selections that are made to go into the house really make me think the producers think the audience is a bunch of drooling idiots. Why? Because some of the picks you could see coming from the first time they popped on the screen during the audition episode, and the rest are so comically inferior to the some of the ones that didn't get picked, it's obvious that they're being picked for reasons other than being... freaking... funny.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: The final five finalists are chosen
Posted Jun 7th 2006 11:05AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, Talent, Programming, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E02) Ever since Season Two, I've taken a bit of a cynical view of the first rounds of
Last Comic Standing. During that year, Drew Carey and Brett Butler went to the press
complaining that Ant was chosen by the producers to go to the house over their objections. It seems that it doesn't matter what the celebrity judges say, the producers are going to pick who they want to pick to go to the house, whether it's because they have a good story, they'll cause trouble, or that they just owe the comic's agent a favor.
This first "semi-final", in which five comics were chosen to go to the house, didn't make me any less cynical. The choices really did smack of compelling story over comedic ability, at least in a couple of cases.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: The first five finalists are chosen
Posted May 30th 2006 11:26PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC, Talent, Programming, OpEd, Last Comic Standing
(S04E01) A couple of things about
Last Comic Standing has always bugged me a little bit: 1) Even in the later rounds of the show, they don't show nearly enough of a comedian's routine for the audience to get a good feel for what he or she can do, and 2) Half the people who get picked to move on are selected not as much for their comedic talents but for their backstories. That feeling hasn't changed in Season 4, the first time
LCS has aired since it's ill-conceived "Season 1 vs. Season 2" year ended with a whimper in December 2004.
This time around, we're back to the usual format, opening with a two-hour show where talent scouts Ross Mark and Bob Read comb the country for candidates to take to the semi-finals in L.A. They went to L.A., Tempe, Austin, New York, Chicago and Miami, auditioning what was considered the city's "best" -- and worst -- stand-ups. What struck me about the audition phase this year is how they decided to not show as many bad comedians as they had in the past, instead concentrating on maybe a half-dozen good comedians who happened to have nice back stories to tell.
Continue reading Last Comic Standing: Season 4 Premiere
Posted Mar 8th 2006 5:11PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, Programming
Still
Standing and
Yes, Dear (aka two of
The Five: Shows that give
lazy overweight men hope) won't return for another season.
The cancelation of
Yes, Dear comes as no
surprise, as CBS only ordered half a season and star Anthony Clark
recently announced that he'll
be the new host of the next edition of NBC's
Last Comic Standing (Yeah! No Jay Mohr!). It lasted six seasons
and is already in syndication.
The fourth and, most likely, final season of
Still Standing comes to
an end tonight in two half-hour episodes on CBS, according to
USA Today. While CBS hasn't
officially canceled the sitcom, which was the 93rd-ranked show this season, the producers and writers had no illusions
that they probably wouldn't return, so they handled the season finale as if it were the final episode for the series.
Since the show lasted four seasons, with 88 episodes, it qualifies for syndication.
Posted Mar 3rd 2006 5:00PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, NBC
If you tune into the new season of
Last Comic Standing, you won't be
seeing the sly smirk of comedian Jay Mohr. Instead, Anthony Clark, an okay stand-up comedian and star of the horrendous
CBS groanfest
Yes, Dear will be taking over hosting duties on the fourth season of
Last Comic Standing
when it kicks off this summer. I watched the first couple seasons of the show but ultimately gave up on it when I could
no longer justify watching a bunch of mediocre comedians arguing over who sucked the least. Having another lame
comedian host the show pretty much keeps it off my "must watch" list permanently.
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
